Paramedics transport a patient to Mount Sinai Hospital as the city enters the first day of a new Covid-19 lockdown due to a spike in cases in Toronto, Canada. Picture: REUTERS/CARLOS OSORIO
Lawyers and human rights advocates are decrying Canada’s November decision to resume deportations. Until now, the extent of the country’s pandemic deportations was not known, but recent interviews with immigration lawyers and scrutiny of government numbers has shed light on the situation. Even subtracting those numbers, it leaves thousands of people deported as the pandemic raged and governments cautioned against travel of any kind for safety reasons. Even as Canada continues to deport non-citizens during a health crisis, US President Joe Biden paused deportations for 100 days within hours of being sworn in on Wednesday.
Countries’ deportation practices have varied over the course of the pandemic. Several, including the UK, suspended deportations before resuming them. Others, such as Ireland, have kept suspensions in place. Many of the deportation trips involve transfers at multiple airports and flights during which people are placed in an enclosed space in close quarters with other people for hours at a time, a situation ripe for transmission.
“As everybody is putting in place more restrictions in an effort to flatten the curve ... CBSA made a shocking decision to simply go back to business as usual,” said Maureen Silcoff, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. “Canada has taken the position that non-essential travel is barred yet people are now being removed and there’s no indication that those removals are essential.
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